SORT ORDER SPACE

1 Less Thing To Worry About At The End Of The School Year

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 21:19:20 -0400

With the school year coming to a close, I know that many parents fret over what to do with the numerous (and odd size) school projects that their proud children bring home at the end of the year.

The easy solution is to create a keepsake box (or four). You can make your own or buy ready made boxes. I typically prefer to make my own because all to often, the off the shelf models don’t accommodate odd size artwork.

A simple under the bed flat storage box is great for storing flat paper art projects. Let your child decorate the outside with their name and pictures of their favorite hobbies and interests. Additionally, you may want to have a more traditional bankers box to store their files of school papers, report cards, essays and books.

If you keep your system consistent you’ll be able to pass along a great trip down memory lane when your child is an adult. After all who doesn’t have fun looking back on the simple thoughts of a 5 year old writing that “cats are nice.”

5 Things That Waste Your Time At Work

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 11:40:00 -0400

When Being Organized Goes Terribly, Terribly Wrong

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 13:23:00 -0400

A Match.com dater kept meticulus records of his dates and dating prospects. He then made the mistake of sharing his detailed record keeping with one of his love interests via email…and now it’s being shared with you. Oy.

The layout possibilities seem endless, I love this shelf! You...

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 08:44:00 -0400

The layout possibilities seem endless, I love this shelf! You adjust the positioning of the cubes any way your heart desires with the attached red tension straps. So cool.

How to Tame Cord Confusion: Part 2

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 13:19:00 -0400

In the first part of our saga, I explained how cords snarl themselves into an unsightly tangle, and gave you some suggestions for tools to straighten out the mess. Now that you’re all prepped with your label maker (a.k.a., the best ten bucks you ever spent) we’ll look at how to stop cord confusion once and for all.

BEFORE: Behold, a tangled mess of cords behind the entertainment unit, as well as an unsightly view of the cords in the front of the unit.

AFTER: Organizational nirvana! Neatly grouped wires in easily accessible wire encasements as seen on the back and a clean wire-free view on the front.

Issues:

Aesthetics. That open entertainment unit seemed like such a good idea when you saw it in the catalogue, with the IKEA family’s fake, wireless TV and components sitting on it. Unfortunately, we have more electronics than our Swedish friends, and the wires can easily become a tangled mess and an eyesore.
Multiple electronics. Don’t believe that this is possible? Believe it. Our sample project, pictured, has a TV, 3 game systems, a surround sound system with 6 wired speakers, a cable box, Apple TV and wireless router. Not a wire to be seen once the project was completed.

Solutions:

We wanted our cords completely hidden for this project. Seriously: My dream was to have people come into the house, look at the TV set-up, and think, “We live in the future! How is this entirely wire-free science-fiction arrangement even possible?” We achieved this illusion with an encasement with an adhesive that sticks to the back of the unit.
Have fewer cords in a narrower area? You can achieve the same effect simply and inexpensively with zip ties. Use them to group together the cables and wires behind the unit where guests can’t see them.
Don’t care about visible wires? If you just want your cords grouped together neatly, there are many cord containment products on the market. You can group and slide your cords into these cable boxes and cable cylinders, and keep the cords together and away from dust, if not fully hidden from view.
If you want your project to look like mine, go with the adhesive tunneling. It offers a bit more organization and ability to “hide” the cords fully.
This project also used zip ties at intersecting corners to stabilize large groupings of cords.
I like zip ties, because they can be easily sniped off if you need to remove a device. The cords can slide through the plastic tunneling too.

Benefits:

The primary benefit is, of course, a less tangled mess of wires.
It’ll be easier to dust, mop, sweep, whatever behind your entertainment console, because there aren’t a lot of wires dragging on the ground.
Your open-back entertainment system will finally look like the sleek, fancy unit you thought you were buying in the first place.

25 Documents You Need Before You Die - and that should be shared...

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:05:00 -0400

25 Documents You Need Before You Die - and that should be shared with your family.

The whole article can be found here.

Very cool for an entryway, I love the hidden hooks - B-Line...

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 11:09:05 -0400

Very cool for an entryway, I love the hidden hooks - B-Line landing strip.

How to Tame Cord Confusion: Part 1

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 14:23:00 -0400

Cords are obviously sentient beings. While we sleep, they unfurl themselves from the relatively neat little rows we’ve placed them in, and wind around each other until every single major appliance in our home sits in a nest of snarled, angry cord confusion.

Or maybe cords are just really hard to organize. Either way, I have a solution, and like all good solutions, it’s a two-parter.

The first part of my cord confusion solution deals with what we have in front of us right now: In this case, that’s a big old tangled mess. Part two will focus on unsnarling the mess and preventing it from happening again. Both sections are particularly useful for those that have open-back entertainment units or shelving and want to hide the mess of cords.

BEFORE: Lots of cords. No way to know what connects to what.

Issues:

First and foremost, let’s look at why this happens to a nice person like you.

It’s hard to know which cord goes where. Does this plug go to the cable box? Or the DVD? Or the telephone?
No matter how bad it is, cord confusion is an out of sight, out of mind situation — until you need to fix something. There’s nothing like being on the phone with Time-Warner Cable, trying to do something simple like unplug your cable box to reset it, and not being able to figure out which cord is which. It’s always worst when you’re crawling around on the floor, getting covered in dust bunnies, yelling, “Hold on, hold on, I have to figure out which cord to unplug,” while the cable guy drones on, two steps ahead and no help at all.

AFTER: Organized wires, clearly labeled, both top and bottom.

Solutions:

The simplest and most economical solution is to buy some address labels and handwrite your labels.
Another easy solution: Print out labels on a label maker. They’re secretly super cheap (less than $10 on Amazon!) and more fun than any grown-up tool has a right to be. See my wires in the photo, above for an example of how this looks.
Be sure to label BOTH ends of the cords. It makes it easier to find what you’re looking for when there are several cords grouped together. Cords love to unplug themselves from the device itself. It’s part of their secret plan to drive you crazy.
Other options: There are lots of cable identification products on the market such as colored flags, wraps, and ties. I don’t find them necessary. Simple homemade labels are often the easiest — and you can’t beat the price. You can get inexpensive label makers that cost nearly the same as two packs of cord IDs. Also, if you buy one of these specialty products, Murphy’s Law of Organizing states that you will run out halfway through the project. Who needs the complication of now having to run to the store to buy more?
Making labels yourself also has the added benefit of flexibility. You can make the label and text whatever size you want, without being restricted to the size that the purchased product dictates.

Benefits:

Besides looking better and making you feel more in control of your life (which is the primary benefit of all home organizational projects) putting cords in order makes it easier to move electronics from room to room. Need to move to a new house? No problem. All the wires are labeled and ready for set up at the new place.
Thinking of upgrading to a new TV or to the newest Apple product? Labeling cords makes it easy to do a quick switcheroo.

Pretty Pegs: I love this product, customize your Ikea furniture...

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 11:28:00 -0400

Pretty Pegs: I love this product, customize your Ikea furniture with new legs.

chimpgoods: Pocket Strip Wall Organizer

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 12:25:00 -0400

chimpgoods:

Pocket Strip Wall Organizer

Such a great multi functional product! tinyblueorange: Too bad...

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 12:57:00 -0400

Such a great multi functional product!

tinyblueorange:

Too bad these wall hooks don’t come in orange!

Nicole Tomazi Shelf

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:01:11 -0400

Nicole Tomazi Shelf

The New Duct Tape

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 11:39:00 -0400

This product is too cool! It’s rubber that you mold by hand. You can use it to fix almost anything. AND it’s flexible, tolerates heat and cold. AND it’s removable!

bring the color block trend into your home

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:32:53 -0400

bring the color block trend into your home

The No-Stress Way to Organize Your Taxes

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:37:03 -0400

This is the time of year when your accountant (or tax software package) starts nagging you about being more organized.

“Think of the time and money you’ll save!” he, she, or it pleads.

“Think about digging through this shoebox of grimy receipts and finding me a refund,” you generally reply. Which is extra scary if you’ve gone with TurboTax this year, as it means you’re just talking to yourself again.

Your accountant, real or electronic, is right: You need a filing system. It’s helpful all year round, but it’s essential at tax time, and here’s why.

Issues:

Tax time will make you sweat, and not in a healthy, pickup basketball game kind of a way. More like the kind of perspiring that only happens when you’re rooting through documents, cursing and shaking your fist, looking for that receipt that you just know was there a minute (or a month) ago.
You are a busy person, and don’t have the time to dedicate to sorting through a years worth of paper for tax season, even if you wanted to. Which you don’t.

Solutions:

With the various file boxes and cabinets on the market, there’s no reason not to have at least one in your home — find one you like and buy it!
Buy a filing system. Yes, this is different than a file box. Freedom Filer is fantastic, and they will email you reminders about rotating your files.
If you don’t have an office or aren’t super diligent about filing, keep a file box in your landing pad so that you can put your papers and receipts where they belong when you step through your door. At the very least, have a “to file away” folder and dedicate 10 minutes one day a week to filing those papers and receipts.

Benefits:

You’ll be amazed with the time (and possibly money) you save if you make the effort to be organized with your documents throughout the year.
Less stress is always a good thing.

An artistic way to display your favorite (but less frequently...

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 11:57:38 -0400

An artistic way to display your favorite (but less frequently worn) jewelry with a grouping of shadow box frames.

pubslush: organizational bookends!

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:56:27 -0400

pubslush:

organizational bookends!

A landing strip on a miniature scale…the Key Switch...

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:51:36 -0400

A landing strip on a miniature scale…the Key Switch Rocker, currently on sale on Fab.com. A perfect solution for those of you that are forever misplacing your keys!

lindsayasdnil: Clever.

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 13:20:00 -0400

lindsayasdnil:

Clever.

Letter cups - a fun idea for organizing a childs’ desk or...

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 09:52:59 -0500

Letter cups - a fun idea for organizing a childs’ desk or craft area